Googlebook OS Now Runs on Apple Silicon Macs Thanks to an Open-Source Project

Googlebook OS can now run on Apple Silicon Macs thanks to a new open-source project that brings Google’s operating system to hardware it wasn’t originally designed for.

Developer Skylar Taylor-Barrick has released gbos-vm, a project that runs Googlebook OS inside a GPU-accelerated virtual machine on Apple Silicon Macs. The developer demonstrated the project on Reddit, showing the operating system successfully booting and running Chrome.

The development comes just weeks after Googlebook laptops from ASUS, Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo became available for pre-order. Users can now experiment with Googlebook OS and its Android-based desktop experience without purchasing a dedicated Googlebook laptop.

However, the developer has only tested the project on an M5 MacBook so far, where the first boot takes approximately 45 seconds.

How Googlebook OS runs on Apple Silicon Macs

The project uses an installation script that downloads Google’s official recovery image for the Dell XPS Googlebook, which runs an ARM64 version of Android 17.

The script replaces the device-specific vendor partition with virtual hardware components from Google’s Cuttlefish project. It then runs the operating system through QEMU using Apple’s hypervisor.

Because Apple Silicon and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors share the ARM architecture, the virtual machine can run without CPU emulation.

For graphics acceleration, the project uses MoltenVK to translate Vulkan graphics calls into Apple’s Metal API, allowing Googlebook OS to access GPU acceleration inside the virtual machine.

System requirements and installation

Running Googlebook OS on a Mac requires an Apple Silicon processor, at least 16GB of RAM, and 60GB of available storage.

Users also need Apple’s Xcode command-line tools and the Android SDK with NDK installed. The installation process downloads approximately 9GB of files.

The developer provides the installation instructions and source code through the project’s GitHub repository.

Several features still don’t work

Despite successfully booting Googlebook OS, the project has several limitations. Bluetooth crashes during startup, while the TPM service repeatedly crashes. The display also has a 60 FPS limit, and audio failed during one of the developer’s tests.

Security remains another concern. The virtual machine relies on software-based KeyMint and Gatekeeper implementations without verified boot, meaning hardware-backed security protections are unavailable.

The developer warns that security keys don’t have protection from a hardware-based secure element and recommends using the project only for development and testing.

For now, gbos-vm provides an experimental way to explore Googlebook OS on an Apple Silicon Mac, but its compatibility and security limitations make it unsuitable as a replacement for a dedicated Googlebook device.

Via TweakTown